Hellofood closes big year in Saudi with Mobily Ventures investment

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After its April
2013 launch in the Kingdom, Rocket Internet’s global food
delivery service for mobile and desktop ranked
below 3,500 on Alexa’s list of most visited sites as of
September 2013, coming in significantly below rival food delivery
services Otlob and Talabat, both of which ranked around 1,000.

As of today, Hellofood is ranked at 1,800, miles ahead of both
rival FoodOnClick*, the Arab world arm of Turkish giant Yemeksepeti
(ranked 2,700), and Egypt’s Otlob (3,500). Kuwait’s Talabat has
also lost a little ground since last September, but still beats
Hellofood with a strong 1,300 ranking. Alexa rankings are not
necessarily indicative of conversion rates, but a shift of this
magnitude is notable nonetheless.

The surge in popularity is likely a result of a $8
million USD round Hellofood brought in from iMENA last
September, pledged with the specific goal of expanding
Hellofood’s Saudi and regional presence. (The service is also
available in Lebanon, Qatar, and Jordan; Hellofood Morocco is also
operational but under a different umbrella company). Mobily
Ventures’ team declined to reveal the amount of the round, but the
team said in August that investment amounts would fall between
$300,000 and $3 million USD.

“Hellofood is a food delivery service that allows customers to
order food from the convenience of their smartphones. The
investment follows Mobily’s strategy and commitment to provide
innovative mobile solutions to our customers,” said Dr.
Karl-Michael Henneking, chairman of Mobily Ventures.

Indeed, this latest investment falls within the purview of the
VC
as relayed to me back in August: the team is constantly on the
lookout for potential strategic partnerships with Mobily. “We’re
looking for something more Mobily can do, beyond writing a check,”
said Daniel Dos Reis, MV’s project director, at the time.

*Disclosure: MENA Venture Investments, which shares
management resources with Wamda Capital, has invested in
FoodOnClick; Fadi Ghandour, who is Chairman of the Board at Wamda,
also sits on its board.